Thursday, May 22, 2014

Guitar amplifier settings?




NE1-469


I got a 15 watt Marshall amp and I was just wondering what style of music each setting is used for? They are: Gain, Bass, Contour, and Treble. I know what gain is mainly, used for more hard rock songs if you want distortion. High bass if you want to play metal. Not sure about contour and treble though. Also, which settings will allow me to get the best acoustic sound? Thanks.


Answer
Hmm. Well, I just played one of these at Guitar Center the other day, so I have a pretty good idea what it can do.

Gain = distortion. Bass = low end. Contour = mid scoop or boost. Treble = ... well, treble. The high end frequencies.

This particular amp doesn't have a lot of gain, I easily dimed it and didn't think it was overly crazy, though normally I wouldn't turn it up that high. More gain = more distortion. Usually too much gain = fuzz, static, noise, and less clarity, but this amp doesn't seem to have enough to really suffer there.

You don't actually need a ton of bass to play metal... in all actuality, lower bass is generally better if you're playing in a band or recording. For solo stuff, umm, whatever.

The Contour knob is a little weird with Marshall amps. If you turn it to the left, it boosts your mids, if you turn it to the right, it cuts 'em. So, left for a more classic sound, right for a more modern sound.


Anyways, my general distortion amp settings are:

Bass 5-6, Contour 6-8, Treble 7-8, Gain 7-8

With this particular amp, these settings will certainly have to be tweaked to sound good for your guitar, etc. Its also worth noting that EQ settings can be different depending on volume - at high volumes you don't want to be pushing a lot of bass, since its easy to get a lot of mud, but you will usually have to tweak the treble when you turn the volume up/down.

To get a passable acoustic tone

Bass 4-5 Mids/Contour 5-7 Treble 6-8 (no gain on clean channel, right?)

Its rough getting an acoustic tone with just an amp - its a little easier with some EQ, and much easier with an acoustic simulator pedal, but in the end, its hard to get a great acoustic sound with anything but an acoustic.

For this amp in particular, to get the closest thing to a modern metal tone that you can get:

Bass 5-6 Mids/Contour 6-8 Treble 6-8 Gain 10


If you're jamming with friends, in general you'll want to lower your bass and gain by 1-3 notches, and move your contour 1-3 notches to the left.

You'll notice I gave a lot of ranges... it really depends on your guitar. What works for my LTD basswood body with high-output Seymour Duncan pickups and onboard preamp won't necessarily work well for you, in other words.

Good luck!


Saul

How to EQ acoustic guitar?




T


I am recording 2 guitar tracks only. Acoustic rhythm guitar and lead acoustic guitar. The mids and highs sound good (though open to advice there also. I am trying to cut the lows with a low shelf as generally they are way too prominent. Is there a general guideline for this in an eq? I am trying a low shelf that cuts 4db clear up to 300 mhz at a q of .9 Can you help me learn to use this eq better? Thanks.
I meant 300 hz
How about a simple 4 db cut up to 300 hz and a 3 db boost at 5khz to add presence? Thx
Hi Gene,

Yes, I am using compression. After the eq, i assume is correct? I am not good with compression either. I have a 4 bandwidth compressor. My hunch is that I want the four frequency sections to have a threshold set that gives them all equal compression, pretty much. For example, though my low end threshold may need to be set lower than my high end threshold, during song playback, the lows and highs both get about 3db max of compression. Sound about right?



Answer
You're fine cutting at 300 Hz. Just use your ears and judge how it fits in with the overall track, not how it sounds on its own. Are you using compression? It helps a lot in subtle ways.

Cheers!

Yeah, rolling off about 4 db or so at around 300 Hz sounds about right. You don't have any bass guitar or bass drum to clash with, so you may not have to roll off too much bottom end. You might try a little bump at around 1.5 k for some punch. You're probably okay with a little boost at around 5 k for sparkle, too, especially since you're only recording 2 acoustic guitars and it won't get in the way of anything else. Bottom line, if it sounds good with little or no EQ, then don't add it just because you can. Your compression settings seem about right, too. Unless you're going for a particular processed sound, the less you use of anything the better. It sounds like you know what you're doing, at least on paper. You using a condenser mike to mike your guitar?

Hope this helps.




Powered by Yahoo! Answers

Title Post: Guitar amplifier settings?
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown

Thanks For Coming To My Blog

No comments:

Post a Comment